Christ the True Vine Message #3 “My Father the Husbandman” Ed Miller, August 3, 2024
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Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
WELCOME AND OPENING PRAYER
Before we apply our indispensable principle of all Bible study, I want to share a verse with you that describes my heart this morning. It has many times described my heart, but I don’t remember a time when my heart felt more like this passage. It’s in Psalm 45:1,
“My heart overflows with a good theme. I address my verses to the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer,” and then looking up to the Lord, “You are fairer than the sons of men.”
And from there we’re just going to praise Him. I feel that this morning so much, that my heart is overflowing with a good theme, and that my text is addressed to the King, and I’m ready to speak.
I’m going to ask you, please, to apply with me that indispensable principle of all Bible study which is total reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Though you know this, I’ll tell you again, we do not enter God’s presence when we bow our heads; we have already been in the presence of the Lord. We are this moment in the presence of the Lord. As we sang, we acknowledged that presence when we bowed. I’m asking you to acknowledge His presence with me and commit our time unto Him. Let’s pray…
Our Father, we do thank You that You’re the One that has filled our hearts with a good theme. Thou art fairer than the sons of men, and we pray that Thy fairness might be seen this morning, and that we might meditate again upon the beauty of the Lord, the wonder of our Savior and the grace that brought us into intimate union with Him. We thank You that the Holy Spirit is present to unveil the Lord to our hearts. We would ask Thee to take the veil away and give us eyes that we might behold the Lord. We thank You that You are already doing it and You are going to continue to do it because we ask it in the precious and all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
REVIEW
We’ve been meditating on some precious truths from John 15. These are some of the last words our Lord Jesus spoke the day before He died. People listen to last words, final things. What are you going to say just before you leave? As our Lord addressed His precious children, He unburdened Himself of some of the great truths that were on His heart that He’d come from heaven to reveal: how to live, how to grow, how to produce fruit that remains and bring glory to God. Those were the things that were on His heart.
In our little look of the precious things here, the first night we addressed that great statement in verse John 15:1, “I am the true vine.” Our Lord Jesus was the true vine. I suggested it probably includes these two things. “I am the vine; and you are not the vine. I’m the true vine and man is not the vine; I’m the source of Life.” There is no Life center in us; there is only Life in Him; He is the true vine. And the other thing it means is that everything God created the vine to picture, everything in the natural creation, He is the divine original of that. That’s just a shadow; the vine is just a picture, just an illustration. Behind that, when God created that, He intended that, “This will picture Me in this way.” Basically, we reduced it to this; the vine is the environment of the branch, and the vine is the sufficiency, it is the element, it is the everything for the branch. We talked about how the Lord is the Christian’s environment, his very element.
Last night we looked together at the second truth, what it means to abide in Christ in order to produce fruit. Abiding is the essential condition for all fruit-bearing. There is no exception to that. Although we didn’t nail it down, and I promised you we would today— the how, how can I abide—we did hint that the two characteristics that are always present in the truth of abiding is distrust of self. Proverbs 28:26,
“One who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But one who walks wisely will flee to safety.”
He that trusts his own heart is a fool. Well, don’t get discouraged because Psalm 103 says,
“Fools cried, and the Lord delivered.”
So, praise God we can cry to the Lord. And the second is that abiding in the vine doesn’t only mean a distrust of self, “Without Me you can do nothing,” but it also is a partaking of the Life of the vine, it’s a partaking of the divine Life—Christ Himself.
HE PRUNES THE FRUITFUL BRANCH
That brings us this morning to another wonderful topic, and may God grace us! Verse 1 again, “My Father is the husbandman.” What does it mean that He prunes the fruitful branch? That’s what we want to look at today. John 15:1,
“I’m the true vine and My Father is the husbandman; every branch in Me that bears no fruit He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit He cleanses it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Already, you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” Verse 6, “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. They gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever ye will, and it shall be done to you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be My disciples.” Verse 16, “You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, that whatever ye ask the Father in My name, He may give it unto you.”
Let me suggest the line that I’ll follow this morning to help you to see where I’m going. For those that enjoy logical connection, I want to look at three things this morning. I want to look at the great truth that My Father is the husbandman. Then I want to look a little bit at fruit; what is fruit? Then I want to look at what it means that He prunes the fruitful branch, and we’ll end up again with looking at fruit. In the way He prunes the branches, the secret is the key to how to abide. So, we’ll touch on that and trust God to minister unto us.
John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” I want to focus on that second phrase, “My Father is the husbandman; My Father is the vinedresser.” I did a little research on the job, the ministry of the vinedresser. I not only had that personal interview with a real, live vinedresser, but I went to the library and did some research on pruning and vineyards and vine dressers, and so on. He had a lot to do. I was amazed at how much a husbandman has to do. It’s his job to engraft the branches; it’s his job to guard and protect the thing as it grows, to watch out for insects and mildew and all kinds of enemies like weather and animals and all those kinds of things. It’s the vinedresser’s job to dung the plant. Did God ever dung you? He’s dung me a few times. It’s very precious when it’s over, but it’s not exactly precious at the time. It’s the vinedresser’s job to prune the plant. John 15 doesn’t get into all of those responsibilities. In fact, it only mentions two. So, though the vinedresser does many things more than is mentioned here, God wants us to see these two. Verse 6, his ministry is to rid the vine of the dead wood. That’s one part of his ministry. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away.”
We’re going to focus on the second part, pruning the fruitful branch. One thing I appreciate about Family Ministries is that they do study in advance and read over these things, and that is so precious to me because I know God is preparing your heart and preparing my heart and it doesn’t scare me at all that you might know more than I do. I know you do, and it’s fine. Going over these things together, we just proclaim them. We’ve heard them. They still thrill our spirits because they’re true and they’re real. I’m sure if you studied this, the branches that are cut off, that’s a provocative section. You say, “Well, what are those branches?”
There are so many commentaries, and everybody has their own view on that kind of thing. I’m not going to straighten you out on that, but I’m just calling attention to the fact that they’re in the vine. Are they cut off, can I lose my salvation, can I be in the vine cut off and end up in the fire, and all that kind of thing? I’m not going to settle the Armenian/Calvinistic debate, but here is a principle of Bible study that not only applies to this verse, but all Bible study, and especially parables. When you come to a story, an allegory, find out the main point that God the Holy Spirit is making. When you come to a chapter like this, He is not talking about eternal destiny. He’s not talking about heaven and hell. He’s talking about abiding and fruit bearing and fruit bearing through abiding. When you get the main truth that the Holy Spirit is talking about, then take the facts of the allegory and tie them into the main truth. I don’t know the full answer to the branches cut off, but I think I know a little bit. I know by principle it means this; any branch that does not abide in Him is worthless as far as fruit bearing is concerned. It teaches that much. You’ve got to admit that. That idea of being cut off and being bound and bundled and burned is a wonderful picture of worthlessness. I’ll go that far; I think that’s at least one thing it means.
Here is another suggestion. Apply the same principle to the dead branches that you apply to the fruit bearing branches. If God prunes a fruitful branch in your life, you wouldn’t say, “I’m done. He cut me off and I’m done, I’m at the end.” He would say, “Hell no, I’ve got a few other branches, you know.” And maybe He’s going to work on a few other branches. But if we look at the first part, He cuts off the live branches, and we say, “Oh, that poor guy; he’s done,” but he might have other branches. I have an idea that maybe we all have both kinds of branches, and God cuts off those and prunes these, and I’m not so sure that every Christian is one branch, and then whatever happens, it’s done. I think that we are in the vine, and we are branched out. Every Christian is branched out, and the body is branched out all over the place. I have an idea that every Christian has his branches that are cut off and bound in bundles and burned up, and that will find its final manifestation at the judgment seat of Christ. Some would suggest that maybe it’s the sin unto death, that a Christian is actually taken home. I don’t know about that, but for our discussion this morning let me suggest a double ministry of the husbandman. He cuts off the dead wood, and by dead wood, “If you don’t abide in me, you can do nothing,” andanything that comes from Ed Miller, anything that comes from flesh, anything that comes from self, I don’t care what it looks like, it’s dead wood and it has got to go.
The Bible uses a word that describes all of that. The Bible calls it chastening. Don’t confuse chastening and pruning; it’s not the same thing. Chastening is God dealing with the dead wood. Chastening is God dealing with self. Chastening is when I’m not abiding in Christ and I’m doing it in my own energy and my own strength. That’s got to go, and it will go, and God is going to cut that off. We’ve all seen those branches. Hebrews 12:5&6,
“Those whom He loves He chastens, and He chastens every son He receives.”
That verse teaches this—as sure as God loves you, you will be chastened. That’s what it is. Everybody is going to have that. As sure as they’re loved, as sure as they’re sons, they’re going to be chastened. Hosea 2:15,
“I will give the valley of trouble as a door of hope.”
How do you like that verse? “A valley of trouble as a door of hope.” That’s God chastening; that’s God dealing with the dead wood.
Lamentations 3:3,
“He does not afflict willingly the sons of men.”
Every time God chastens, He does the absolute minimum necessary in your life or mine to bring us to the place where we can produce fruit.
So, chastening is one side, but we’re not going to look at that. I want us to look at the other side—pruning. God prunes the fruitful branch. Chastening is without a question. Psalm 119:75,
“In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.”
We look back at the times He chastens us, and we praise God that He cut off that limb; He cut off that leaf and dealt with that lumber in order that we might have fruit. But now this other part, “If any branch bears fruit,” that implies fruit that comes from Christ; if anyone abides in such a way that they produce fruit, He says that sometimes I have to cut that off. What is that all about? Pruning is not chastening. What happens in the crucible, what happens at the potter’s wheel, what happens as the sparks fly upward, what happens in the smelter’s furnace, that’s chastening, and that’s different. It needs to be studied but not this morning.
The amazing thing is that pruning has to do with those who are doing well, those who are abiding in the vine. They’re seeing Jesus, and they are distrusting self, and they are growing in the Lord by the Spirit of God. Pruning is for the victorious; pruning is for the overcomer; pruning is for those who triumph in Christ Jesus every day. What is it? What does He do and how do we understand what this is? Before we talk of the how of pruning, let me say a word about verse 1 again, “My Father is the husbandman.” I call attention to that statement because it’s dripping with comfort from my heart, and I hope from yours, too.
I went to the library to do some research on the secular side of this whole idea of pruning. I found this wonderful book on pruning. I opened the first page and I wanted to go home because the first page started with a picture, and on the top, it said, “Pruning instruments.” That’s how the book opened, with all kinds of knives in all shapes: curved knives, big knives, little knives, scissors, big scissors, little scissors, lopping two-hand scissors. There were saws, axes, hatchets, hoes, a Mattox, hooks, shovels. I went, “Ahhh, I don’t want to be pruned!” That’s all on the first page, and I thought, “Oh, Lord, pruning,” and I came back, and I opened the scriptures and I read that first verse, “I am the husbandman,” and my heart thrilled that those tools were not in your hand. The pruner better know what he was doing.
I was amazed to read about pruning. A lot of damage can be done by mis-pruning. A plant can be dwarfed forever if it’s mis-pruned. Fruit trees can be set back twenty years if they’re mis-pruned. Timing is so important. If the tree is dormant, you prune it one way and if the sap is flowing, you prune it another way. Sometimes it’s total amputation and you cut it off. Other times it’s just sort of thinning out and heading back and pulling off the suckers. I read a chapter on pruning roots. Roots get deep in the soil, and they cut away some of the roots, and it’s all part of pruning. There’s a way to prune saplings and a way to prune older trees. Sometimes nothing is cut off; sometimes it’s just cut. It’s not cut off, but it’s just cut to let the spray in. Sometimes it’s a round cut and sometimes it’s an elliptical cut.
I’m not pretending I learned how to prune by reading that book, but after my trip to the library, I came back, and my heart was rejoicing that my Father is the husbandman. He knows when to prune and He knows how to prune, and He knows where to cut, and He knows when to cut, and He knows how deep to cut. I’ll tell you one thing; I wouldn’t feel safe if the shears were in my hand. If God said, “Alright, Ed Miller, I’m going to give you the scissors, now you cut off everything superfluous in your life.” That’s not going to work because I love my lumber and leaves too much. I’m going to be so gentle with me. I’m too stupid to know what has to go. As I suggested, I love you, but I’m glad that God has not given the pruning shears to the church. He has kept the pruning shears in His own hands. I love, “I am the true vine,” but I also love, “My Father is the husbandman.” Whatever pruning is, and we’ll look at it, it’s from His hands, and you can feel safe when you are being pruned. Only God knows how to prune.
This idea of pruning in order to bring forth fruit, what is the end toward which the husbandman moves as He prunes the vine? What is the goal in His heart? Where is He heading as He goes after the vine and prunes the vine? John just says, “Fruit, more fruit, much fruit, remaining fruit, fruit that abides and brings God glory—fruit.” What’s fruit? It depends upon who you talk to. Christians have their own ideas about everything. You get with one group of Christians, and they say, “Fruit—are you bearing fruit?” And they register, “Am I leading souls to Jesus?” That’s fruit—evangelism, soul winning, bringing people to Christ. I did a little word study, and it was interesting. Sixty-seven times in the New Testament the word “fruit” is used, and never once for bringing souls to Jesus. I just throw that out there.
WHAT IS FRUIT?
What is fruit? Some say, “Well, Galatians 5, that’s easy, and it tells what fruit is. Galatians 5:22, ‘The fruit of the Spirit…’” Our sister shared this morning, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” and that’s what fruit is. Some say, “Well, you know, it includes that, but it’s works, because a tree is known by its fruit, “By their fruit you shall know them,” their behavior, by their actions, by what they do—their works.” What’s fruit? Is it soul winning? Is it the fruit of the Spirit? Is that why He prunes us? Is it behavior? Is it our probity, our carriage as we walk, our conversation in the world? Is it all of that?
“My little children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”
The fruit is Christ, until Christ be formed in you. As the husbandman looks at the vine, He says, “That’s good, but it’s not Christ, not yet” – lop lop. “That’s good, but it’s not Jesus.” As a matter of fact, when I met my neighbor, I got frightened when I saw pruning. That thing looked like a tomato plant just standing up. Everything was cut off, but he patted the vine on the bottom, and he said, “Look how fat that vine is.” The branches were getting thin, but the vine was getting fat. He said, “I’m going to get a good harvest; look at the vine.” That’s pruning, man; it cuts you back to the vine.
Let me take you back to science a little bit. God creates this organic world all as a picture. He creates every living thing to depend upon its environment, whether it’s a bug or whether it’s a fish or whether it’s a bird or whether it’s an animal or whether it’s a plant or whether it’s man, everything depends upon its environment. But the scientists say, “It’s not only the organism and the environment, there is something else that needs to be studied,” and God has written it in nature. It’s not just the organism and the environment but the scientist also looks at the heredity, the genetics of the organism. In fact, in our society there is a great battle raging among psychologists on the behavior of people. What affects them more? Is it their environment or is it their heredity? There’s no question in all of life, every living thing that God has ever made, and you can look at my grandson, if you don’t believe it, the image of the parent is stamped upon the child. The image of the parent is stamped upon the fruit. All life tends toward one end, and that is to be conformed to its parents. That’s where life is moving; that’s what it’s all about. Every living thing that ever came into the world was compelled to stamp its life, its image, upon its offspring. That’s how God made it.
I was amazed to read that when life begins, even to the most trained scientific eye, it all looks the same. I was so amazed to read that; that little blob of protoplasm looking like the white of an egg, transparent and just a jelly made up of hydrogen and nitrogen and all, and that mystery called life, when it first forms, at the beginning under the most powerful microscope, they can’t tell if it’s going to be a carrot or a mushroom or an oak or an elephant or a turtle or a man. But inside that protoplasm God has put a seed, God has put a stamp. Bird life goes toward the birds, and turtle life goes toward the turtles, and bug life goes toward the bugs, and mushroom life goes toward the mushroom. It’s sort of like what God said in the beginning, Genesis 1:24,
“And everything will bring forth after its kind.”
God has written that in nature. I call attention to that because we just sort of read these things la, la, la. People get all upset about the first part of 1 John 3:9. Forget about the first part and look at the second part. 1 John 3:9,
“No one who is born of God practices sin. He cannot sin.”
Do you see the reason? Genesis 1:11,
“Then God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them,’ and it was so.”
Do you know what that word is? You know what that word is. His seed is His semen, His sperm, God’s seed remains in him. We talk about receiving the Lord and we get Life. When you receive the Lord, God’s seed was put in you, and you have been stamped with the image of God.
The image of God has a name, and it’s Jesus. You have been stamped, and He is the image of God, and all life will bring forth after its kind. “Am I ever going to be conformed to Christ?” Yes, you are. Do you know why? It’s because you have the seed of God in you, and Life produces Life. Bird life produces birds and feathers and beaks, and lily life produces lilies, and you have God’s Life, and you don’t have to concern yourself another moment from now until you go to heaven about whether you’ll be conformed to Christ. You will, indeed. Life moves and develops, and that’s what the vinedresser is about; He knows that Life is in there and He’s waiting for that Life to become manifest in His Son.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are born of God; you are born from above, and you are begotten of God. God’s workmanship, His seed is in you. That’s what it means that you’re being changed from one degree of glory to another, being conformed to the image of Him who is in you. As I abide in Jesus, as you abide in Christ, the Life begins to flow, and we begin to change, until Christ is formed. Christ is growing, too, and someday He’ll stand in you as this great cluster, Christ in full stature in your life. The Christian life is not chasing after a few gifts, and it’s not struggling to be holy, and it’s not some army that God sends out to win the world. The Christian Life is abiding in Jesus Christ, so that the Holy Spirit can work in me and produce Christ in my Life and Christ in your Life.
What does the husbandman lop off, then? If I abide in Christ, and He brings fruit, then what is to prune? “That looks good; leave it alone. Husbandman, let me teach you how to do Your work.” May God teach us! Why would God cut off His own fruit in order to have fruit? And what is the fruit that He cuts off? The end toward the husbandman moves is to see His Son, to see Christ, and as He moves toward the vine, all of those tools that were on page one are for chastening, and there’s only one tool for pruning, and I’ll show you what that is. When I abide in Christ, and I’m trusting the Lord, God begins to work in my heart.
Have you noticed as you go on in the Lord that you love more than you used to love? Love is a wonderful thing. It’s not Christ. Do you notice that you are more patient than you used to be? Patience is a wonderful thing, but it’s not Christ. When you pray to the Lord and as you are growing in the Lord, you say, “Lord, please send help, help me; I need help.” Does He send help? Oh, He does every time. That’s fruit; that’s fruit from abiding in Christ. He sends help, but that’s different from, “I am your help.” And after a while He’s not going to send help anymore because He wants you to know, “I AM your help.” And you begin to see Christ and He lops off those things that are not Him. They’re good, they’re a blessing, and He’s lopping off the blessings. You say, “Lord, give me strength.” Does He give you strength? He gives you strength, but that’s not the same thing as Christ is my strength. Did you ever pray for a song in the night? Did He give it to you? Sure, He did! Praise God that He gives you a song in the night, but that’s not the same thing as Christ is my strength and my song, and He’s become my salvation. As you go on in the Lord, all those wonderful things that God gives as fruit, He must later lop off, so that you’ll know the sufficiency of Christ.
He gives deliverance, but He gives the Deliverer. Greater than deliverance is the One who delivers. Greater than healing is the One who heals. Greater than any gift is the Giver, the Bestower of the gift. As you go on in the Lord, when you get confused, you say, “Lord, I don’t understand. You said, ‘If anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask and God will give it.’ So, I did, and I got wisdom, and now you lop it off.” He says, 1 Corinthians 1:30, “I know, my child, because I am made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification from God and redemption.” “Lord, give me peace.” He says, “Alright, I’ll give you peace, peace that passes understanding; enjoy it,” clip, clip clip. It’s because He is our peace. I tell you; you don’t have peace until you have it in Christ Jesus. You don’t have righteousness until you have it in Him, or health or strength or deliverance or any other thing. Praise God for His blessings! I couldn’t say this everywhere, but I can say it here (I trust I can). Praise God for His blessings, but His blessings are only suckers, preparing you for the real fruit, and He’s going to nip those in the bud. He’s going to clip them off; He has to clip them off.
Contrary to the library book from page one that scared the tar out me, pruning is not scary. In fact, it’s fun. Let me mention the pruning scissors that God uses. Did you notice as you read this, there’s that verse that He just threw there in the middle, and it doesn’t belong? Verse 3,
“You’re clean through the word which I’ve spoken unto you.”
Verse 7,
“If My words abide in you…”
What is all this with pruning and the word? I’m suggesting that the only tool that God will ever use to prune His fruit from your life are the scissors and the lopping shears. He prunes you, listen, by the revelation of Jesus Christ. This word that is a two-edged sword, Hebrews 4:12,
“For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
You begin to study the word, now look—here’s pruning; you study the Bible to see the Lord.
I remember the day God pruned me. I had certain blessings in my life, and He revealed Christ as the end of the Law to everyone that believes. I could almost hear the limbs hit the floor. My life was changed. Do you know how you’re changed? It’s by seeing Him; you’re clinging to the word. That’s His scissors, and every time you see Christ in the word, something goes off, and you get more and more like Christ. I love pruning. I was scared before, but now… What is pruning? It’s seeing Christ in the word of God, and every revelation of Christ liberates you and sets you free. I remember when I saw Him as the Mediator of the New Covenant, half my prayer life went out the window. When you see Him, you change, and these things drop off. What drops off? All those things that are from Him but are not Him, because He wants you to have fruit, more fruit, much fruit, and abiding fruit. And the men of God, the elders in this church, labor in love until Christ be formed in you. That’s what it’s all about. Pruning is glorious.
One final point. This idea of fruit—don’t trust yourself; just trust the Lord, and drink from Him, and get His life, and let Him work in your life and cut off the dead wood and prune the blessings until finally it’s just Him; fruit is redemptive. Do you know the last thing in the world an apple tree wants? Apples. What in the world is an apple tree going to do with apples? What is a grape vine going to do with grapes? A grapevine is going to hate grapes. Fruit is for somebody else. It’s not for the plant. The plant produces for somebody else. It’s not for them at all. It’s redemptive.
I think one reason God chose grapes and the grapevine to show fruit is because it contains in it a corporate picture. You don’t go to a grocery store and say, “Hey, look at this grape.” You aren’t too impressed with one grape, but by the cluster of grapes together. And then when the grapes, this is the real church, are mashed together, to become jelly and jams, that’s the local church. They’re put together and they become wine for the community. That’s the testimony; that’s the glory of the vine; that’s the reputation for the vine. It’s for others. I know the purpose of fruit, according to my good botany book. I almost shouted, “Hallelujah!” when I read that botany book. It’s not the Bible, but I’ll tell you, it sure opened my eyes to a lot. The seed is in the fruit, and the fruit is the womb of the seed. It’s the future of the plant; it’s the next generation. It’s reproduction; it’s evangelism; it’s soul-winning. When is the fruit ripe? The answer is when the seed is ready; that’s when it’s ripe. That’s why the vinedresser is so anxious that you produce, not just the blessing, but when Christ is there, you are full of seed and full of Life, and everywhere you go you drop Life, you drop Life, reproduction, and that’s evangelism.
Do you know why it’s so stupid to fake it, to fake fruit, to be plastic, to be an imitation, to play a game? It’s because fake fruit doesn’t have the seed. Fake fruit doesn’t have the Life. You play your game, and you try to impress one another. The goal of it all is that His seed is in you, and His seed will give out. You don’t need to worry about growing, you don’t need to worry about fruit bearing, and you don’t have to worry about being conformed to Christ. His seed is in you. Drink Jesus, enjoy Jesus, draw from that Life, live that Life, and Christ will be produced in you. Understand that when God comes into your life to cut off dead wood, nothing goes that is not gain to lose and lost to keep. Everything that goes needs to go. Don’t be too surprised when you say, “I’ve been praying for strength, and He just doesn’t give it anymore. I looked for help and where was it?” Don’t get confused. God is pruning you, so that you might come to know Him who is your help, who is your strength, who is your patience, who is your song. It’s Him. And you begin to live in Him, and you are going to bless everybody that comes into your shadow. They’re going to touch your life and they’re going to touch fruit; fruit is Life. Don’t play games. Don’t imitate, don’t be a hypocrite, don’t fake fruit. Plastic fruit is nothing. It’s not fruit. I don’t even want to eat a seedless grape! It’s not real. Fruit has seed; seed is Life, Life is Christ Jesus.
Father, thank You for Your wonderful word, and we just pray that You might make these things so real in our life, as our sister suggested, so that we can feel it. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
